truths, believes and changes
by sayu-chan93
Summary: AU Catharge Arc. Sister Paulas curiosity is spiked when she sees Abel and Esther in a cafe brooding over maps. She follows them silently and discovers truths that make her question the validity of her believes.
1. Preface

Hi here is another idea of mine, this time in english. At the moment it's just a plotbunny, i'm currently writing the first chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Trinity Blood, i'm just borrowing the characters.

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><p>It should have been a normal mission. Well, as normal as it can get if you are ordered to protect and observe a cardinal whom trouble followed like a little duck its mother. But this mission certainly wasn't "normal", not by any kind of standard, of that sister Paula was sure.<p>

She had just arrived back in Rome when she got the order to accompany the divisions of the inquisitions forces that were departing for Carthage. Her official mission was to guard the cardinal Sforza and her AX, the unofficial one was to observe her doings and report them back to cardinal Medici. But when she arrived in Carthage Petro ordered her to accompany him on his mission, which was finding Vampire Nobles from the Empire that were hiding here.

She never would have believed that the following events really happened if she hadn't been there herself.


	2. Chapter 1

Hi here it is, finally, the first chapter of my Carthage AU. I had quite a few problems giving Paula a believable reason to follow Abel and not report him or Caterina to Francesco. I finally got inspiration from Abels encounter with the Lady of death in the Brno Arc in the RAM, think the chapter was Know Faith. I hope you'll like it.  
>Special thanks to Flame800900, smcandy and BlueWings900 for their stories I hope you'll continue them for they and their continuos updates give me incentive not to abandon my stories.<p>

If you have any comments, ideas or just emotions regarding the chapter I hope you'll review.

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><p>It was a hot and sunny day in Carthage. The Inquisition's divisions ordered to Carthage by Cardinal Medici had just arrived and were waiting to be given orders by their leaders Brother Petros and Sister Paula.<p>

Said leaders were strolling around town. Even on their free day they were looking for places to station their soldiers around town and wanted to take a look at some of the Puppet-companies the Empire kept in Carthage. Which of course would be more of a task for the Lady of Death than for Il Ruinante, as it would require a large amount of subtlety and Brother Petros was not subtle. As they were crossing one of the towns large squares Paula spotted a Nun and a Priest in one of the Cafés. Paula blinked. If her eyes weren't deceiving her those were two of Cardinal Sforza's subordinates. The silver-haired priest she had last seen in Brno on her mission to dispatch all those heretics of the Neue Vatikan and she had seen the red-headed nun in Rome somewhere. It wouldn't surprise Paula if the redhead was an AX-operative too, they often operated in pairs. The two were eating breakfast and were brooding over some papers; maps as far as Paula could tell from her position. Her curiosity spiked. It would definitely be interesting to see what those agents were up to. If Cardinal Medici had any complaints about that later on, she could always say, that she was fulfilling her mission on spying on Cardinal Sforza's people. She gave her chief officer a sign to continue onward without her and while it confused him a lot, he complied with her request. As she watched her boss walk away, she slowly but steadily inched closer to the priest and nun sitting in the café, using what stealth years of assassinations had granted her. She could hear them talking. It wasn't very interesting as much of it was the young nun chewing the priest out about his eating habits and the priest giving a lecture on the empires puppet-companies in Carthage. The discussion began to get interesting when the priest was looking over a map of Carthage sewer system. Why in the world was AX interested in the sewer system? What was the significance of the Kabur-al-lyssa being linked to the sewer system? How did the priest know so much about the graves history? What were those heretics hiding? Should she follow them and gather as much intel as she could? Or Should stop them here? Questions kept piling up in her head.

One sentence in particular got her attention:  
>"After the death first lieutenant Srait the bunker was closed hermetically, so that no one should have entered since then."<br>Where did the priest get that information from and who the hell was first lieutenant Srait? Paula was getting more confused with every word spewing out of the priests mouth. Thee vehemence with which he denied saying anything about the lieutenant made it obvious that the priest didn't mean to let that name spill. It had to be someone important enough to be secret information even in the ranks of the AX. This would certainly be something Cardinal Medici would deem important information.  
>What was that? The priest had a mission which he could not tell the young nun about because she was not authorised? And it was not about the vampire attacks nor would the priest be arresting any vampires. Apparently there was some substance to the rumours about Caterina Sforza being in contact with the vampire's empire. That heretic was finally making a mistake. A rare grin worked its way on Paulas face, this could get very, very interesting.<br>As the priest walked away from the small red-headed nun the Lady of Death discreetly set out to follow him.

Not long after it became quite clear to her that the AX-officer knew someone was following him, as he made several attempts to loose her. And although they did not amount to much else than some more metres between them, Paula had a hard time keeping up with the priest. He apparently had had intense training in operating under the radar and loosing someone in a crowd. Only her own wealth of experience in following targets let keep up with him. After a few minutes of weaving in and out of the crowd in the streets the he ducked into a small passage way and Paula followed him.  
>When she rounded the corner, the passage was deserted. Where had that priest disappeared to? There weren't many shadows that prevailed in the midday heat of the city, but she couldn't find the priest in any of them.<p>

"What is the inquisition doing here already? Weren't you scheduled to arrive tomorrow?", a deep voice so unlike the one in the café whispered in her ear sending shivers of shock and surprise down her spine. Not that she showed any of her discomfort on the outside, being the cold and toughened inquisition soldier she was.  
>"We had favourable weather and arrived early.", Paula answered very conscious of the revolver on the back of her head. Furious, she tried to come up with a plan, but the AX-officer had the advantage. He was prepared, had her at gunpoint and she did not have her trusted daggers with her. Though she was an expert in unarmed combat she knew the priest was very good himself.<br>"Oh well,", continued the silver-head nonchalantly, "I hope you do not plan to go running to Cardinal Medici any time soon. It would be rather inconvenient and I would be very, very angry if those actions started a new Armageddon.". From the tone of the priests voice one could have gotten the impression he was berating an insolent child or a stubborn pet. -it was grating on Paulas nerves and her rely was short and terse, which was rather out of character for her normally calm demeanour.  
>"So you're saying I should just turn a blind eye on obviously illegal dealings of clergymen, forget this ever happened and merrily go my way? You obviously do not know the Inquisition."<br>but the priest did not seem the least bit concerned .  
>"Oh, I wouldn't expect you to do that. In fact I'd like you to follow me. The only real stipulation I have is that you wait until after this stay in Carthage to report what you've seen. I may even clarify some things for you. I said before that you're just a pathetic dog seeking a place to hide in this wide and fearsome world. I hope your eyes will be opened by this trip." The priest lowered his gun walked past her and continued on his way. All Paula could do was stare.<p>

At that moment there was only one thought running through her mind:

Damn it, that silver-haired bastard of a heretics dog always knew how keep her off-kilter and following his wishes.

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><p>I hope you liked it and I'll strive to continue this story and my other ones too.<p>

LG Sayu


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